New Rescue Truck Goes into Service

Mayor Richard J. Berry and Fire Chief James Breen dedicated a new rescue truck into the Albuquerque Fire Department’s fleet on Saturday, January 29th 2011.

The truck, Rescue 8, will provide residents who live in the South Foothills and North Four Hills areas a quicker advanced life support response. The truck will be manned by two paramedics who are licensed through a physician to administer drugs to patients who are suffering from cardiac arrest.

“This new truck will improve public safety in this area and will undoubtedly save lives,” Mayor Berry said. “Through the years, a lot of hard work from my administration, the Fire Department, the City Council and the neighborhood associations went behind getting this truck.”

Station 8, located at Tramway and Constitution, has never had a rescue truck assigned to it. Previously residents living in the Monte Largo Hills, Embudo Canyon and Vista del Mundo neighborhoods had to wait for paramedics to arrive from one of three stations: Station 16 at Osuna and Juan Tabo; Station 9 at Menaul and Eubank; or Station 12 at Central and Juan Tabo. For some residents, the closest rescue truck was four miles away.

“Not only will this improve public safety for their residents in these neighborhoods, but it will also will relieve one of the busiest rescue trucks in the city at Station 12,” City Council President Don Harris said.

The truck cost $180,000 and was paid for from the city’s Capital Improvement Fund. The city council appropriated more than $380,000 towards the operating expenses. Earlier this month, 12 paramedics, graduated from the Fire Academy and are ready to man the truck.